Comcast Goes Bigger With Wi-Fi

Welcome to today's broadband and cable news roundup.

Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) has activiated another 2,500 Wi-Fi hot spots in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, with the highest densities in Boston, Cambridge and Brookline, says The Patriot Ledger. Comcast, already active with Wi-Fi in Philadelphia and parts of New Jersey, also has a Wi-Fi roaming arrangement with Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC), Bright House Networks and Cox Communications Inc. This map shows where Comcast high-speed customers can log in for Wi-Fi access via the MSO or one of its roaming partners. (See Cable Goes Big With Wi-Fi Roaming .)

BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) has turned to South Korea's Humax Co. Ltd. to supply set-tops for the initial launch of Internet TV service YouView TV Ltd. , because Pace plc 's boxes gear "did not meet BT's requirements," reports The Financial Times. The paper said BT still plans to use Pace boxes, but didn't know when they would be introduced.

NimbleTV , a startup that has aims to help pay-TV providers offer subscription packages on smartphones and tablets, has raised $6 million in funding, says TheNextWeb, citing a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. Nimble TV intends to serve as a go-between for the pay-TV operators and customers, providing the latter with streaming access to live TV programming on the go for a fee expected to be in the range of $20 per month. It's currently beta-testing its platform, which connects users to set-tops housed at a centralized facility, in New York City. (See NimbleTV Takes Video Subscriptions Over the Top .)

Comcast says customers have already watched and streamed about 1.5 billion TV shows this year via its traditional Xfinity On Demand service, as well as its online video hub and mobile TV Everywhere apps. The MSO cited the number as it launched a site that curates the top fall TV shows that can be viewed on demand on TVs, PCs and mobile devices. The operator said its Xfinity TV apps for iOS- and Android-powered devices have been downloaded more than 6 million times.

Shazam Entertainment Ltd. says its interactive TV app for tablets and other second screens works on more than 160 U.S. TV channels, and that its global user base now exceeds 250 million users. Shazam uses audio-based automatic content recognition (ACR) technology to trigger companion apps on mobile devices that sync up with the live TV program. Those apps, for example, can offer info on a show's cast, ask the viewer a trivia or polling question, or present a live Twitter feed tied to the show being watched.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable